Listening to music can occur on many levels, from the purely aural to the emotional and intellectual. A concert performed by members of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society on Sunday night meant to engage you on all of them. The full effect includes a discussion of the music by the performers, as well as the concert, in the intimate West Wing of the Smithsonian Castle, the only concert venue in the city where one is surrounded by rockets, mounted wildlife and other curiosities.

Violinist Robert Mealy and SCMS Artistic Director Kenneth Slowik, at the harpsichord, played four of the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord by Bach (BWV 1014 and 1017 to 1019). In spontaneous and expert preconcert remarks, they spoke of the new genre that Bach was creating in these works, a distillation of Corelli’s trio sonata texture. Their performance fell in line with these comments, the fast movements percolating and largely regular of tempo so that the three strands of the polyphonic structure locked into place. [Continue reading]